The state’s changing its game plan in the battle against synthetic drugs. These are drugs that have been sold in the past at convenience stores and gas stations under street names like "bath salts" and "spice."
Last year, a law was passed to ban all existing synthetic drugs based on their chemical structure. But there’s a problem. Criminals are creating new drugs with different chemical formulas that don’t fall under the same scope of the law.
So the Attorney General’s office and Pharmacy Board are proposing a new rule so state officials can ban drugs in a different way. Instead of looking at the chemical structure, they would consider the elements of the drug that cause the symptoms.
Jonathan Fulkerson, deputy chief counsel with the Attorney General’s office, says this new rule will help the state catch up to lawbreakers.
“These chemists are clever and they are very knowledgeable about what the law prohibits and what it doesn’t," Fulkerson said. "And they’re creating and changing chemicals as fast as they can because it’s money.”
The proposed rule must be signed by the governor and approved by a legislative panel before going into effect.
